The present invention relates to apparati and processes for aligning fish, such as cod, and orienting them in the same orientation in single file.
Fish usually arrive at the factory in kits of 60 which comprise fish of various sizes and weights, and it is necessary to grade them either by length or weight before further processing. At the present time, the alignment and feeding of fish to a grading system is carried out manually, an operation which is slow and tiring and results in a feed rate of only about 30 fish/minute.
Shuffle feed apparati are well known for the handling of fruit and vegetable products to control the feed rate to a processing station. They utilize parallel-positioned feed members which are reciprocated back and forth in opposite directions in a wave action to align articles received in bulk random form in a single file order along their leading edges.